Miracle League of Mid-Michigan empowers, uplifts kids

It’s the longest day of the year, and one the hottest. But heat can’t slow Olivia Franklin down on her trip from home plate to first base.
Olivia’s metallic green crutches flash in the evening sun as the tiny 8-year-old sporting the number 5 on the back of her shirt sprints down the baseline.

On the sidelines, her mom, Julie Franklin, cheers.  So do her Cubs teammates.  So do many of the rival Cardinals.

This, sports fans, is the Miracle League, an extraordinary effort to help kids with mental or physical disabilities feel perfectly ordinary for an hour a week on the baseball diamond.

“Here, they’re not a kid with a special need, they’re a baseball player,” said Vicki Caine, director of the Miracle League of Mid-Michigan, who saw her dream come true at the field’s dedication and first exhibition inning in May.


“To see the excitement on their faces and to watch the parents in the stands, it was one of those goosebump moments,” she said.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20120630/NEWS01/306300040/Miracle-League-Mid-Michigan-empowers-uplifts-kids